A dry racing surface was the storyline in the heat races as drought conditions continue to plague the Northern Wisconsin. The track was so dry, that in a rare move at Riverside, water had to be thrown on the track during intermission. That water, however, did not work into the racing surface as well as officials hoped, and after a couple hot laps by the WISSOTA Midwest Mods, it was determined that they could not lead off the feature program.

That meant the Family Fours would go first as the features were run in reverse of what was originally planned. Family Four class point leader Larry Leonarduzzi took the lead on lap five of feature from John Barlowski and held on the rest of the way. Eric Scharf was able to close within a couple car lengths in the finals laps, but was never able to draw closer. It was the third feature win of the season for Leonarduzzi.

In the Pure Stocks, Pete Luedke’s car returned to Riverside Raceway last week with a different driver in the car. After a sub-par run, the Luedke decided to take matters into his own hands Tuesday. Luedke was able to start from the pole in the feature thanks to the car’s low point-average, which spelled doom for the rest of the field. The race was slowed once for an opening lap spin by Steve Locy, but otherwise, was clean and green from start to finish. Luedke quick pulled away from the pack and cruised to a nearly half-lap victory over Steve Glinski.

Jeff McDonald retook the point lead in the Pure Stocks. He came into the evening trailing Chad Rosinski by three points. Both won their heat races, but problems developed for Rosinski’s car during intermission. During the feature, his car did not have its usual power in the straight-aways. Rosinski had to settle for a tenth place finish. McDonald finished fourth and turned the three-point deficit into a three-point lead.

Riverside Raceway tried a new procedure for the start of each Tuesday Night. Race officials agree following a 12-car pileup at the start of the Firecracker 40 earlier this month that something had to be done to prevent the drivers from accelerating for a start in the middle of turns three and four. An orange cone, similar to Riverside’s restart cone was placed in the about halfway between the exit of turn four and the start/finish line,. It marked the point where the front row would see the green flag.

In general, the cone did exactly what it was intended to do, and there were no incidents at the start of any of the ten races run on the evening. Track owner and promoter Don Scharf said afterward he was “tickled” with how well the procedure worked.

The one close call came in the feature for the Fire-Up Fireworks WISSOTA Street Stocks. Dennis LaCrosse started on the pole along-side Antigo’s Jermey Wolfe. On the start, the outside line was well in front of the inside line as they came past the flag stand. No penalty was called, however, as track officials ruled that Wolfe’s start was in time with the green flag and, therefore, legal.

That great start allowed Wolfe to open a huge early advantage as LaCrosse held on to second. Eventually, 2005 track champion Mark Schuenemannn worked his way past LaCrosse. Schuenemann, who was making his first start of the season at Riverside, would not have enough time to reel-in Wolfe, however. The race went caution-free and Wolfe secured his first feature win of 2006 at Riverside, in just his second start.

It was another caution-plagued feature in the Miller Lite WISSOTA Street Stocks, with a familiar result at the end. It took Bob Richardson just four laps to work from his seventh place starting position to the lead. He passed Bob Kleinschmidt coming out of turn four for the top spot. Jason Zdroik was making a similar charge as he started eighth and passed Kleinschmidt for second on lap eight.

The caution flew one lap later for an incident involving Cody Schmidt and Rob Rodziczak. On the restart, Richardson and Zdroik pulled away, leaving the rest of the field to battle for third. Kleinschmidt spun in turn for on lap 11, bringing out the second caution.

Cautions slowed the field after lap 12, and again after lap 15. On each restart, Richardson and Zdroik would pull away from the field. Richardson gradually pulled away from Zdroik as he went on to take his fifth feature win of the season at Riverside. It matches his total of five feature victories at TNT Speedway in Three Lakes this season.

The drawback to Richardson’s dominance is that it had some in the pit area questioning the legality of his engine. Following the race, in an attempt to squelch those suspicions, Riverside officials did a top-end tear down of the Adams Engine in Richardson’s car and found everything to be legal.

Racing continues Tuesday, July 25 at Riverside Raceway, where is will be the Fire-Up Fireworks WISSOTA Street Stocks night to shine as Riverside puts on the third annual Eagle River 30. The 30-lap feature will pay $300 to the winner, and the field for the feature will be lined straight up from the finishing order in the heat races. Miller Beer of the Northwoods will sponsor the night of racing with hot laps at 7:30 and racing at 8:00.


Riverside Raceway Results: Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Miller Lite WISSOTA Midwest Mods
Heat 1: 1st 1J-Jason Zdroik; 2nd 2-Bob Richardson; 3rd 0-Bob Kleinschmidt; 4th 7-Duane Dunbar; 5th 15-Rob Rodziczak

Heat 2: 1st 15S-Cody Schmidt; 2nd 14-Troy Smart; 3rd 30-Guy Carley; 4th 18-Nick Dolezal; 5th 8D-Neal Dixon

Feature (20 laps): 1st 2-Richardson; 2nd 1J-Zdroik; 3rd 30-Carley; 4th 15-Rodziczak; 5th 18-Dolezal; 6th 15S-Schmaidt; 7th 8D-Dixon; 8th Kleinschmidt (out); 9th 14-Smart (out); 10th 7-Dunbar (out)


Fire-Up Fireworks WISSOTA Street Stocks
Heat: 1st 5-Chad Boettcher; 2nd 93-Lee Christjohn; 3rd 50-Jermey Wolfe; 4th 78-Dennis LaCrosse; 5th 26-Jordan Kurtti; 6th 96-Mark Schuenmann; 7th 9-Neal Slizewski

Feature (20 laps): 1st 50-Wolfe; 2nd 96-Schuenemann; 3rd 5-Boettcher; 4th 78-LaCrosse; 5th 93-Christjohn; 6th 26-Kurtti; 7th 9-Slizewski (-1 lap)

Pure Stocks
Heat 1: 1st 7-Jeff McDonald; 2nd 7X-Pete Luedke; 3rd 38-Steve Glinski; 4th 2J-Dan Vedder; 5th 101-Leif Gunderson; 6th 70-Troy LaRock

Heat 2: 1st 8-Chad Rosinski; 2nd 23D-George Dalbeck; 3rd 50-Steve Locy; 4th 01Z-Ron Reese; 5th 23M-Kevin Maulson Jr.

Feature (15 laps): 1st 7X-Luedke; 2nd 38-Glinski; 3rd 23D-Dalbeck; 4th 7-McDonald; 5th 01Z-Reese; 6th 70-LaRock; 7th 101-Gunderson; 8th 50-Locy; 9th 23M-Maulson Jr.; 10th 8-Rosinski (-1 lap); 11th 2J-Vedder (out)

Family Fours
Heat: 1st 87-Jim Deau; 2nd 64-Larry Leonarduzzi; 3rd 111-Jamie Hedlund; 4th C4-Michael Diak; 5th 13-John Barlowski; 6th 44-Eric Scharf

Feature (12 laps): 1st 64-Leonarduzzi; 2nd 44-Scharf; 3rd 111-Hedlund; 4th 13-Barlowski; 5th 87-Deau; 6th C4-Diak